Courses

Put on Your 3D Glasses Now: The Past, Present, and Future of Virtual and Augmented Reality

Wearable displays appear to be on the cusp of consumer adoption, with a new wave of excitement in virtual reality and augmented realityignited last year by the joint introduction of two early-stage prototypes: the Oculus Rift Developer Kit and the Google Glass Explorer Edition. The existence of these compelling consumer prototypes is a testament to the great technological strides made in optical fabrication, embedded computing, motion tracking, and real-time rendering since the introduction of the first head-mounted display by Ivan Sutherland in 1968.

This course reviews the past, present, and future of wearable displays, with presentations from VR/AR pioneers, leading entrepreneurs, and academic researchers. The course begins with a historical retrospective by Henry Fuchs. Mark Mine then discusses how virtual reality technologies are applied at Disney, both in front of guests and behind the scenes. Next, Ian McDowall presents an in-depth tutorial on the the engineering of wearable displays, ranging from human factors to optical design. And Douglas Lanman expands on this tutorial, summarizing emerging wearable-display technologies with a focus on optical designs capable of achieving eyeglasses-like form factors.

The annual SIGGRAPH conference has a long been the premiere venue for disseminating research in virtual and augmented reality. This course continues the tradition, providing a historical retrospective, a state-of-the-art report, and, most significantly, an inspiration for young researchers and developers who are entering the world of wearable displays.